This thread has put me through the emotional wringer. No other issue in my life affected me so much as the war in Vietnam, and reading all this has brought it back sharp and clear.

I was living in New York State (having emigrated from Canada at age 10 with my familay) from 1958 to 1969, through some of the most tumultuous years of protest against that war.

My heroes were all profoundly against American intervention in Vietman, and so was I.

Even though I was a Canadian, my guidance counselour informed me that I was required to register for the draft, because I had a green card. Being a person (at that age) who respected authority and ALWAYS did exactly what I was told to do, I followed his instructions and registered!!! Would I do so now? Hell, no!!!

In due course I received their stinking draft card. 2 years later I moved back to Canada and mailed them the draft card AND the green card, saying I didn't need them anymore. They had the collossal nerve to mail the draft card BACK to me, saying that once you were registered with the Selective Service you were registered for life, and that if I were to re-emigrate to the States, then I would again be liable for induction.

I was tempted to send them a letter saying that if I were ever inducted and sent to Vietnam I would join the other side at the first opportunity, but I thought better of it, and simply ripped up the draft card instead and flushed it down the toilet. I never heard from the Selective Service again, and they can go screw themselves as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sure that many of those who did serve had noble motives of duty, honour, and patriotism. I will not badmouth them for it.

Those who resisted the war also had noble ideals of duty, honour and patriotism.

I belive that duty to the whole human race supercedes duty to a specific government. The American government was wrong to involve itself in Vietnam. It was wrong to assist the French in maintaining a colony there, wrong to support Diem, wrong to send foreign troops into a civil war in a small Asian country.

The men who made those decisions were not evil or demonic men, they were men who saw the world divided into an epic battle between Communism (the "evil empire") and democracy. Their view of the world was simplistic. It had little relevance in Vietnam, which was fighting to achieve national sovereignty and end foreign occupation, by the French, then the Japanese, then the French again, then the Americans. Ho Chi Minh and George Washington had more than a few things in common, and they were both patriots.

I want to thank all those who contributed to this thread, whether or not we agree on this or that point.

Each one of us tries to do what is right. I know that.

Peace be with you,

- LH